England's vaunted cricket team have been brought crashing back to earth, with a crushing defeat against Pakistan in Dubai. Watching some of this event made one realise what a load of rubbish the English media spout when it comes to our assorted sports' teams.
How England have ever been rated as the number 1 cricket team is a mystery known only to the goons who work out the ratings. England's players are a bunch of decent players, none of whom are probably of real world class; that, of course, is not what the media say and part of the problem is that the players have believed their own press. They strut around as if they are the best thing since sliced bread, while performing like a bunch of amateurs.
The first innings performance was shocking. Having won the toss and batted on a wicket universally acknowledged to be benign, they collapsed in disorder; placing the blame on lack of recent cricket simply doesn't hold water. They were hopeless and horribly shown up by a bowler, Ajmal, who was simply out of their league. When the Pakistanis batted, they quickly showed that the wicket held few terrors even though England's bowlers performed more than creditably. In fact, it was only the bowlers who kept England in touch at all.
Second time around, England's batsmen were probably even worse than before. For both openers to be caught behind flicking at balls down the leg-side showed a naievty and unpreparedness for Test Cricket bordering upon the unbelievable; when Kevin Pieterson then managed to be caught near the mid-wicket boundary, playing a shot of terrifying recklessness, the game was up. Ian Bell was a shade unlucky to be trapped in front by a bit of a shooter, but Jonathan Trott, having played a well controlled innings, made an injudicious swish at a widish one to produce another 'caught behind'. Graeme Swann was incredibly lucky to survive a clear 'leg before' only after the umpires questioned the legality of Gul's delivery, but did go on to provide the only other real resistance with an innings of 39. Nonetheless, this 'great' side only just avoided an innings defeat.
The truth is that England's batsmen play so little cricket that they are never ready for a Test Match. The only first class cricket any of them play, other than the Tests, is the rare appearance for their county team; other than this, they play a vast amount of one day 'crash, bang, wallop' stuff, which is no preparation for a 5 day match. In any case, most of the batsmen lack the the technique and application necessary for 5 day cricket against good opposition; they are far to prone to flashing outside the off (or leg) stump, too eager to have a mad swish regardless of the situation, and are easily undone by a half-decent spinner. The bowlers are probably a better bunch, though whether they're as good as we're told, is a different matter. What is undoubtedly true is that the team, as a whole, is nothing like as good as the media would have us believe.
Sadly, there is little chance of there being any significant change in the make up of the team in the immediate future. Strauss will remain captain even though he has done nothing to deserve his place in the last couple of years. Pieterson, a good batsman when things go his way, is a loose canon we can ill afford, while Morgan has never really done anything of note at Test level. Bell has had his moments but lacks consistency and Tremlett is of questionable quality. This side needs an influx of new players of genuine calibre, but where are they to come from ? The current organisation of cricket in England does nothing to develop Test class players and until it does, we are doomed to days such as the England team experienced today.
No comments:
Post a Comment